Yes Sir 2: The Cold Flames
by BrokenHearts159
Summary: Sequel to the first story, Yes Sir. Based on the movie Iron Man 2. I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING!
1. Chapter 1

Yes Sir 2: The Cold Flames

Sequel to my first story, Yes Sir

Based on the movie Iron Man 2

I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING!

"Damn it, Butterfingers! You burnt me! You are the most stupidest robot I've ever in counter. I still think Dummy's smarter than you." I told Butterfingers as he burnt my finger with the torch when he was suppose to fuse the wires together in the reactor. He turned his head in a circle and made a whirring noise as if to say sorry. "Yeah, well, sorry's not going to heal my burnt finger is it?" He drooped his head in sadness.

"Wake up, Daddy's home!" A sexy voice announced behind me. I looked ever so slightly over my right shoulder to see Tony enter the garage and make his way to me.

"Welcome home, Sir." Jarvis greeted him. Tony walked in front of me as I returned to my work. He just stood there and looked at me until finally I looked up into his dark, mysterious, brown eyes.

"Do you need something, Mr. Stark?" I asked.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"What the hell are you doing?" I returned the question.

"Trying to figure out what the hell you're doing, now what the hell are you doing?"

"Trying to figure out why the hell you're staring at me."

"No one likes a wise ass, Amber."

"No one likes a smart ass, Tony."

"A wise ass is a smart ass, dumbass. What the hell are you doing?" I returned to my work as I begun to answer him.

"I am simply combining physics, chemistry and fun together to make," I screwed in the last screw and held the reactor up for Tony to see. "a mood reactor."

"A mood reactor?"

"Hell yeah, if I'm going to die young then I want to die colorful."

"Will it work?"

"It should. I mean, I built the same thing except I added crystals in the middle."

"Crystals?"

"Yeah, depending on the temperature of your body depends on your mood. Depending on the color of the crystals depends on that temperature. Say you're calm and relaxed, the blood would move away from the outside of the skin and more inward to the center of the body. So, the body would start to cool down and the crystals would react to that temperature by twisting in a way and make the color blue." I snapped in a palladium disc into the reactor. I slipped my hand under my shirt and took out my old reactor and snapped my new one in. I looked down at my chest and a green light shone through.

"What does green mean?"

"Hmmm, I don't know, Dr. Seuss." I muttered.

"Smartass." Tony murmured as he walked away from me.

"If I'm the smartass then you must be the dumbass." I said.

"Wiseass." Tony reminded. "No one likes a wise ass, Amber." I smiled at his back and looked down to admire my new project. It changed to purple and I smiled even bigger to see that it was working.


	2. Chapter 2

Right, left, right, left, left, right. I stood in front of Tony, jumping from left to right, trying to figure out his next move. He shot out his left hand and I jumped to the left and pushed his hand away with my right and threw my left fist to his stomach which he easily jumped back from.

"Can you please come sign the transfer paperwork." Pepper yelled from outside the boxing ring.

"Can't right now. I'm busy." Tony yelled back.

"Transfer papers for what?" I asked as I danced behind Tony's back to give him a kidney shot. Good thing we were wearing padding or else that would have really hurt.

"I made her CEO of the company." Tony grunted as he turned around and threw a punch into my stomach. I dodged it and remained behind his back. "You're like weasel. You fight like a tiger but you move like a weasel." I dodged another punch and threw one at him which he easily pushed away.

"Well, gee, Tony, I don't know whether to be grateful or offended." I back off of Tony and jumped from left to right again as I waited for him to make his move. I looked over his shoulder to a brunette chick in a white button up shirt and a black skirt.

"I promise this is the only time I will ask you to sign over your company." Pepper said. I playfully tap Tony on the head with my fist to get his attention back. He turned around and kicked me in the stomach and I stumbled back.

"I'm done." He said. "What's your name, lady?"

"Rushman. Natalie Rushman." The chick answered.

"Front and center, come into the church." Tony ordered.

"No, you're seriously not gonna make her, are you?" Pepper questioned Tony.

"If it pleases the court, which it does."

"He's very eccentric." I said as Natalie came over to the ring and Tony held the ropes up for her to get in.

"Can you give her a lesson?" Tony asked me.

"Me? You ordered her in here and you ask me to give her lesson?" Tony stood there and pondered the thought for a moment.

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up." He said as he hopped out of the ring.

"You ever box before?" I asked Natalie.

"I have." She answered, clearing her throat.

"What kind? Tae Bo? You seem like the Tae Bo kind of person."

"How do I spell your name, Natalie?" Tony yelled the question from the seat next to Pepper.

"R-U-S-H-M-A-N." Natalie answered, turning around to look at Tony.

"Never take your eyes off your opponent." I recited Happy's words as I made a move to hit Natalie softly. She turned around quickly, grabbed my wrist and began to flip me over as she tried to wrap her legs around my neck. But in mid air, I somehow manage to wriggle out of her iron grip and land on my feet, crouched to the floor.

"Whoa!" Tony said from his seat. "How the hell did you do that?" Natalie crouched in front of me and I didn't take my eyes off of her, waiting for her next move.

"I have no idea." I answered.

"Weasel." Tony reminded me. "You're a weasel."

"Nah, I like to think of myself as an otter." I smiled. Natalie finally got up and got out of the ring.

"I need your impression." Natalie said to Tony.

"Well, you have a quiet reserve. You're an old soul."

"Tony?" I called his name from above.

"Yeah?"

"I think she means your fingerprint."

"Right." Natalie picked up her binder and opened it up where Tony gave her his fingerprint. "You're the boss, Pepper." Pepper smiled at him.

"Would that be all, Mr. Stark?" Natalie asked.

"Yes." Pepper and I said in unison and at the same time, Tony said, "No."

"Yes." Pepper insisted. "That would be all, Mrs. Rushman. Thank you." Natalie left the room.

"I want her." Tony said. "I need a new assistant."

"What am I not good enough for you?" I questioned him.

"You're my smart assistant. I need an assistant that does errands for me."

"Yeah, whatever."


	3. Chapter 3

I stood behind Tony and Pepper as we walked into the race track restraunt in Monaco. They met up with Natalie as we entered through the doors.

"We have one photographer from ACM, Sir." I said as I walked in front of Tony and Pepper, took their drinks from them, handed them to Natalie and stepped out of the shot.

"I got an interview with someone about becoming CEO." Pepper told Tony as then finished the pictures. Natalie handed me the drinks back and I handed Pepper hers as she walked away.

"What's on the docket?" Tony asked Natalie.

"You have a nine o'clock dinner." Natalie stated.

"Great, I'll be there at eleven." He replied.

"Of course you will." I muttered handing him his drink as we made our way to the back of the restraunt.

"Is this table ours?" Tony asked pointing to a table next to a window that overlooked the race track.

"It can be." I said.

"Make it us." Tony ordered. I looked at Natalie and she nodded making her way over to one of the waiters as I picked up my pace to catch up with Tony as he made his way to the bar. "You want a massage? I'll get Natalie to set an appointment."

"I don't want Natalie to do anything and I think Pepper agrees with me." I said.

"I can give you a massage." I looked at him and he looked at me, brown meeting blue, blue meeting brown as we leaned up against the bar together.

"Anthony?" A voice called out Tony's real name from behind him. "Is that you?"

"My least favorite person on earth, Justin Hammer." Tony muttered in disappointment. A man in a gray suit, light brown hair and black square glasses stepped up beside Tony. Tony sighed.

"You're not the only one here who drives a fancy car." Justin said. Tony rolled his eyes. "Do you know Christine Everhart from the Vanity Fair?" He pointed to a blonde hair woman next to him.

"Yes, roughly." Tony muttered.

"Mr. Stark, your table is ready." Natalie said as she walked up behind me. Tony did a quick wave to Justin and followed Natalie to his table with me behind him. Tony and I sat in chairs next to each other while Natalie went off to find Pepper. I looked around the fancy restraunt and started to observe all the different people.

"What does yellow mean?" Tony asked me. I looked down at my chest to see my reactor glowing bright yellow through my white buttoned up shirt.

"Unsettled." I muttered.

"You're not comfortable here?"

"I was never good with big crowds."

"So you're not coming to our birthday party?"

"Nah, I'll probably end up locking myself in my room and read."

"You're going to read on your fourteenth birthday?"

"I'll be fifteen and yes. How old will you be?"

"Twenty five. Fifteen, hmmm, are you good with driving?"

"Yes, I am. Why do you ask?"

"How fast have you've gone?"

"A hundred and twenty in a camaro."

"Did you crash?"

"No."

"Follow me." Tony got up and I rolled my eyes and followed him. He led me outside to the race track where a blue and white race car sat. I was starting to get a bad feeling. Tony yelled in French to a guy and the guy yelled back. Tony pointed to me and the guy yelled furiously and the argument continued for several minutes until finally the guy threw his hands up into the air and walked away from Tony. "Come on." I rubbed my hands on my jeans and followed Tony to the car. "Get in." I looked at Tony in astonishment.

"Get in?"

"Yeah, I need a driver."

"Uh, how about you?"

"Nah."

"Nah?"

"Nah." I stared at him for a moment before getting into the car. I buckled my seat belt as Tony leaned into the car. "Is everything comfortable?"

"Physically or mentally?"

"You're reactor's black." I looked down and saw a black hole in my chest. I looked back up into Tony's eyes.

"I'm scared." I admitted.

"Everything is going to be alright. I promise. I promise, Amber, everything is going to fine. Just drive, pretend no one else is on the track." He reached into his pocket and pulled something out. It was tiny and he stuck it in my right ear.

"What the hell was that?"

"It was an earpiece." He said, sticking on in his ear. "I can hear you, you can hear me. I can speak to you, you can speak to me. Ok?"

"Ok." I muttered. Tony stuck my helmet on me and strapped it on as I flipped on the switches in the car and started the engine.

"Can you hear me?" I held up a thumbs up. "Good, now remember, everything is going to be fine." I nodded and sat up straight to peer over the steering wheel. I pulled on my leather gloves and gripped the steering wheel. Tony backed up from the car as I revved the engine a couple times. As soon as it was time to go, I floored the gas and I was off, my head slamming into the back of my seat. "Wow, look at you go."

"Was that too fast of a start?"

"That was perfect."

"Ok, I'm going to guide you through this, Amber, ok?"

"Ok."

"Ok, do you see a white and red car?"

"Yeah, it's the one right in front of me. What about it?"

"You need to stay in front of it. It likes to, oh how do I put it, it likes to brake check people."

"Oh, so now you're telling me."

"Can you get in front of it?"

"No, it's going faster than me. I'm already going a hundred and ten."

"Ok, to the right of the steering wheel, there should be a flashing blue light. Do you see it?" I glanced down past my hand and saw the light.

"Yeah."

"Ok, push it, draft the car in front of you for seven seconds exact, then press the green light below it as you pull out."

"Ok." I took a deep breath and straightened the car out with the red one. I pressed the button and started to count. One. . . two. . . three. . . four. . . five. . . six. . . seven. I pressed the green button and gave the steering wheel a jerk to the right and shot past the red car. Awesome. The jolt of speed made me think of how astronauts felt when they took off. But as soon as I passed the car, I wished I hadn't. A man with two electricity whips in each hand and a reactor in his chest stood in the middle of road. He had gray long hair and he looked Russian to me. He raised a whip and chopped off the front of my car. I covered my face with my arms and screamed as I did about three flips in the air. I ended up upside down, my seatbelt the only thing keeping me in place.

"Amber, Amber? Are you alright? Amber?" It took me a moment to realize that it was Tony who calling my name.

"No, no, I'm hurt."

"What happened?"

"This man, this man came out of know. He had, he had a reactor just like us, Tony. And he had two electricity whips."

"Ok, ok. It's ok. Just get out of there. I'm on my way." I reached for my belt buckle with shaking hands and unbuckled. I quickly but gently lowered myself to the ground and hid behind the car. I peered around the corner and saw the man coming towards me. He whipped his whip against the car and I made a run for it. He saw me and smacked the ground with his whip. The vibrations from the ground knocked me off my feet and I flew over a car and knocked my head on the cement. A sizzling sounded above me and I looked up to see a broken off piece of metal from a car come down and land on my legs. I screamed in pain as a corner of the metal entered my upper right leg. "Amber, what's wrong?" Tears flooded my eyes. "Amber? Amber, you there?" I reached out to the metal and tried to push it off of me which only sent more pain through my body and another piece of metal fell behind my head caving me in next to the car. "Amber?"

"Tony," I called out with a shaking voice.

"Amber, are you ok?"

"Tony, I'm stuck. I, I, can't move. I'm caved in." Light appeared just above my head to the right and I turned my head the best I could to see flames. "Tony, please, hurry." The flames started to get bigger, grow faster and get closer. "Tony."

"Hold on, Am, I gotta finish this guy off." I began choking on the smoke from the flames. Each breath was getting more and more difficult to breathe. "Got him. I'm coming, Am." Light blinded my eyes as the metal above my head disappeared and I saw a red and silver man. He pulled the metal off my leg and I cried out in pain. Tony quickly lifted me up and flew me up into the air just as the car exploded. "You ok?"

"Besides the agonizing pain in my leg and the cut on my face, I'm peachy." I said sarcastically.


	4. Chapter 4

"Amber, I really don't think you should come with me." Tony said as I sat on a stretcher, waiting for the paramedic to finish up my leg.

"Tony, that guy tried to kill us." I said. "I'm part of this so I want to see what the hell he has to say." The paramedic handed me two pills. "What the hell are these?"

"Vicodin." The paramedic answered.

"You're making me take vicodin?"

"It a pain reliever. You're being too stubborn to stay here so give you pain relievers until you're ready to trust a paramedic to take you to a hospital."

"Yeah, that's never going to happen. I hate doctors and I hate hospitals." I muttered.

"Doctors save people's lives."

"Doctors can drug people and kill them. Can you at least get me some water?" The paramedic handed me a paper cup of water and I swallowed the pills. "Can I go now?"

"I still think you shouldn't go. You could possibly have a concussion but I can't tell for sure until we get you to a hospital. And I just wrapped you leg up, I didn't stitch it up. Not to mention the cuts on your face."

"Great. See you later." I said, taking the crutches from the paramedic and hopping off the stretcher. Tony there, his arms across his chest.

"You need to go to a hospital." He said.

"And we need to find something to replace palladium but we haven't have we? Come on, let's go." I hopped to the jail doors with Tony behind me where French guards were waiting for us. Tony spoke French to them and they let us in. One of the guards began to talk to Tony and led us to a door at the end of the hallway.

"You don't have to be scared, Amber." Tony said.

"I'm not scared."

"Your reactor says differently." I looked down and saw the reactor black as a black panther in the night.

"Whatever." Another guard stepped forward and unlocked a metal door with no window. Tony walked in and when I began to follow him, a guard placed a hand on my right shoulder and stopped to me. The guard began to say something to me in French. "Listen, Punk, I don't speak French." The guard repeated whatever the hell he said to me. I looked over at Tony. "Tony, you better tell this man to get his hand off of me before I knock his ass out with this crutch." Tony said something to the guard and the guard reluctantly took his hand off of me. "Yeah that's right. Wei Wei." I entered the room and the guard closed the door behind us. I looked over at the guy who was sitting on a metal bench with his back to us, no shirt and tattoos all over him. Tony stuffed his hands into his jeans pockets and I stayed close behind him as he made his way to the bench, the smell of his black leather jacket filling my nose.

"Decent tech. Cycles per second were a little low." Tony said as he made his way to the other side of the bench to look at the man's face. I sat down on the opposite side of the bench, far away as possible from the man. "You could have double up your rotations." Tony sat down to the right of me, in the middle.

"You focused the repulsor energy through ionized plasma channels." I added. "It's a passable knock off."

"I don't get it." Tony said. "You could have made a fine paycheck after a few finishing touches. Sold it to North Korea."

"China." I added.

"Iran."

"Or the black market." I finished the list. "You look like you have friends in low places." The man turned his head to the right and looked at us.

"You come from a family of thieves." The man spoke with a Russian accent. Ha! I knew he was Russian. "And now, you try to rewrite your own history and you forget all the lives the Stark family has destroyed."

"Speaking of thieves, where did you get this design?" Tony asked.

"My father." The man answered. "Anton Vanko."

"Never heard of him. Have you?" Tony asked me.

"Nope."

"My father is the reason you two are alive." Vanko said.

"The reason I'm alive is because you had shot, you took it and you missed." Tony stated.

"If you can make God bleed, then people will cease to believe in him and there will be blood in the water and the sharks will come. All I have to do, is sit here and watch as the world consumes you. Both of you." Vanko said.

"Where will you be watching the world consume us?" Tony asked.

"A prison cell, I believe." I answered Tony's question.

"I'll send you a bar of soap." Tony said, standing up, helping me up too. We began to walk to the door before Vanko stopped us.

"Hey, Tony, before you go," We turned around and looked at Vanko. "palladium in the chest, painful way to die. You really don't want a little girl die suffering do you?" Tony turned back around and knocked on the door and the guard opened the door and Tony ushered me out.


	5. Chapter 5

I lay on my stomach on my bed, glass windows to the left that over looked the ocean. There was a knock on the bedroom door.

"Mr. Stark is at the door, Mrs. Pricing." Jarvis said.

"Let him in." I said and Jarvis unlocked the door and opened it to allow Tony in. He had a maroon button up shirt with the top four buttons opened and black dress pants. He wore a Jaeger watch on his left wrist. He came strolling in with a piece of cake on a plate in one hand and a present with a blue bow on it in the other hand. I pushed papers to the left side of the bed so Tony could sit down as I sat up. I closed my chemistry book and tossed it onto the papers.

"Happy Birthday." He said as he handed me the piece of cake. It was a layered ice cream cake. He set the present on the floor next to the bed.

"Thank you," I said, setting the cake on the nightstand.

"What are you doing here?" Tony asked, looking at all the books and papers on my bed.

"Trying to replace Palladium."

"We've tried everything."

"There has to be a combination we missed. What's our palladium concentration?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Tony,"

"It doesn't matter."

"Jarvis,"

"90%, Ma'am." I hung my head in disappointed and saw my reactor green.

"Guess we now know what green means." Tony whispered.

"Yeah." I took a deep breath and my reactor returned to its natural blue color. It was silence for a couple of moments.

"Well, I better go get the party started." Tony said as he stood up and walked out the door. The door closed and locked. I leaned over and picked the package up from the floor. I carefully tore the blue bow and wrapping off to reveal a long black box. I opened the lid slowly and saw a note and a sapphire choker necklace. I opened the note and it read 'yes the sapphires are real'. I smiled big as a tear of happiness rolled down my right cheek. I picked the necklace up and admired it. Happiness starting drowning me from the inside.


	6. Chapter 6

I was about to go to sleep when a light appeared on my nightstand and a picture of Pepper showed up on the surface.

"What?"

"Can you come down here please?"

"I told you, I don't want to party."

"It's not to party."

"What then?"

"It's about Tony."

"I'll be down there in a minute." I got up and walked out of the room and walked down the stairs to one of the mansion's living room. People were crowded in there around a stage. Tony was in his Iron Man suit, mask up and a bottle of Scotch in his hand. Oh, my god. Pepper waited for me at the bottom of the stairs. "You got to be kidding me."

"I don't know what to do." James appeared next to Pepper.

"I can't believe this." He said. "I just stuck my neck out for this guy."

"I'll handle it." I said.

"Handle it. Or I'm going to have to." James said. I pushed through the crowd and climbed onto the stage, my cast on my leg making it really difficult. Tony was bent over laughing and I took my chance and took the microphone away from him.

"Does this guy know how to throw a party or what?" I laughed into the microphone.

"I love you." Tony said into the microphone. I couldn't tell if he was telling that to me or if he just said that because he was drunk. You can never tell with a drunk person.

"Aw, unbelievable." I looked up into Tony's brown eyes and he smiled big down at me and I placed a hand on his metal chest to keep myself steady and he placed a hand onto my left hip. "Thank you so much, Tony, we all thank you so much for such a . . . wonderful night and we're going to say good night now." The crowd groaned in disappointment and Tony leaned down to my ear, his lips barely brushing against it. I looked down and saw my reactor purple. Great. "Thank you all for coming."

"No, we can't," Tony whined like a four year old and I dropped the microphone down to my side. "We didn't have the cake and we didn't blow out the candles."

"You're out of control." I said.

"I'm out of control?"

"Trust me on this one."

"You're out of control, gorgeous." I tried hard not to blush at that one.

"Time to go to bed." He leaned down closer to my face. "It's time."

"Give me a smooch.

"You're not going to be happy."

"You know you want to." God, I really did but I can't give him what he wanted.

"Just send everyone home, ok?"

"If you say so."

"Ok. I'll take this, you take that." I took the bottle of scotch from him and handed the microphone. I walked off the stage and went back over to Pepper and James and I handed James the bottle of scotch.

"Amber Pricing." Tony said. "She's right. The party's over. Then again, the party for me was over like an hour and a half ago. The after party starts in fifteen minutes!" Everybody cheered. "And if anybody, Amber, doesn't like it, there's the door." He pointed to the door and a plasma jet shot out of his hand. I covered my head with my hands as glass exploded. "Pull!" A girl threw up a glass bottle into the air and Tony shot it. Glass shards landed on me like glitter.

"I'll be back." I said, turning and leaving the crowd.

"Where are you going?" James asked me as he followed me downstairs to the garage.

"To deal with this little problem." I walked over to the end of the garage and stood on the platform. "Jarvis, cut my cast off and put the suit on."

"Yes, Ma'am." An arm with a saw came out of the floor and sliced the cast off me. More arms came out and put the suit on me piece by piece and screwed in every bolt. I flipped my mask down and turned to James.

"There's a silver suit over there." I said before walking back upstairs. Pepper looked at me and she shook her head. "I'm only going to say this once." Everybody was quiet and looked over at me and gasps rang out threw the room. "Get out." Everybody pushed past me and ran out of the house. It was just me and Tony now. "You don't deserve to wear one of these. Shut it down!" Tony turned his back to me.

"Goldstein." He called to his DJ.

"Yes, Mr. Stark?"

"Give me a fat beat to beat my girlfriend's ass to." Tony laughed. Girlfriend? Yeah, he was definitely drunk. Goldstein typed something into his computer and Another one bites the dust by queen started to play through the speaker. I walked up behind Tony and wrapped my arms around his chest.

"I told you to shut it down." Tony's mask flipped down and jets shot from his feet and slammed us backward into glass and we landed in the boxing room. I did a backward flip and shot jets from my hands to slow me down once I was on my feet. Tony did the same. Tony began to walk away from me.

"Now, put the thing away before someone gets hurt." He said. I grabbed a weight disc and threw it like a Frisbee at Tony's head. He stopped and looked at me. I tossed another one at him and he leaned back to avoid it. "Really?" He grabbed a weight stick and slammed it into my stomach and I flew back onto the boxing ring. I landed on my back. I shook my head to clear it as Tony flew up and landed beside me. "Sorry, Amber, but I'm starting to think that girl's shouldn't be in that suit." Fury erupted inside me like a volcano. I grabbed a metal pole as I stood up and slammed it into the stomach, then into his head and another blow to his head. When I went for the fourth blow, Tony grabbed the end of it and tried to yank it from my grasp but I held on tight. I kicked his right leg and he fell down onto his knee still gripping the pole. I threw him up and he flew up into the ceiling and landed on the floor above me.

"Had enough?" I asked as I flew up into the hole and landed beside him. He stood up and I threw a punch at his face and sent him flying through a wall. I walked towards him and threw another punch at him and he fell to the ground. I threw another punch at his face and we both flew through the floor. I landed on my face along with Tony in front of me. I scrambled to my feet and walked towards him. He got to his knees and punched me in the left leg and I fell and landed on my face again. He grabbed my back and threw me. I stopped myself and punched him which he easily dodged as he threw one at me. I dodged to the left and went behind him. Just like in the ring. I'm a weasel. I'm a weasel. I'm a weasel. I repeated that over and over in my head. It was so hard to be a weasel in this suit though. Tony turned around and punched me but I dodged it. Tony's arm wrapped around my left leg and flipped me and I landed on my face again. I stood up and he punched me in the face. He made another move to punch but I pushed his hand away and pushed him away from me. I held up my hands, ready for his next move. He walked back towards me and slammed his fist into my head. I returned and he retrieved and he returned it back to me. I threw another at his face and he threw one back. I made another move to punch him but he grabbed my arm and slammed my head into the counter beside us. I stood up and grabbed a piece of the counter and slammed it into his side and he flew into the fireplace. He got out of the fireplace but stayed on one knee while I stood on both legs. He held up his hand and I held up mine too and defense. "Put your hand down."

"You think you got what it takes to wear that suit?"

"We don't have to do this."

"You want to be the war machine, take your shot."

"Put it down!"

"You gonna take a shot?"

"Put it down!"

"No!"

"Drop it, Tony!"

"No!" Plasma jets shot from both of our hands and shot me back.


	7. Chapter 7

I sat on the beach listening to the waves as they crashed onto the shore. I twiddled the small square that would become my suit with just one push of a button, between my fingers. What happened back there? Did I just attack legendary Tony Stark? Or did legendary Tony Stark attack me? Did I win? Or did he win? So many questions that I didn't have answered to.

"Amber Pricing?" A voice sounded to my left and saw a black man with and eye patch walked towards to me.

"You won't happen to be child services will you?" I asked.

"No, I'm Nick Fury. Come on, I'll explain everything once we get the other load."

"What other load?" He didn't answer.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

We walked up to a doughnut shop and looked up into the donut and saw Tony laying in it with donuts in his hands.

"Sir, I'm gonna have to ask you to exit the donut." Nick called up to him. Tony looked down at us and pulled down his sunglasses to get a better view of us. Nick and I walked inside and sat down in a booth and waited for Tony to sit across from us.

"I told you, I don't want to join your super secret boy band." Tony said. I looked at Nick and him confusingly, not knowing what they were talking about. Nick scoffed.

"No, no," He chuckled. "I remember, you like to do everything your self. How's that working out for you?"

"It's. . . It's. . . it's. . . it's. . ." Tony stuttered, clearly hung-over. "I'm sorry. I don't want to get off on the wrong foot. Do I look at the patch or the eye? Honestly, I bit hung over. I'm not sure if you're real. . ."

"I am very real." Nick said. "I am the realest person you're ever going to meet."

"Just my luck." Tony looked around the donut shop. "Where's the staff?" I looked at his neck and saw the crisscrossing lines in his veins.

"That's not looking so good." I muttered.

"I've been worse." Tony mumbled.

"We've secured the perimeter, but we shouldn't hold for much too longer." Natalie said, walking up to us. Whoa. What the hell? I am now completely confused if I wasn't already.

"Huh," I looked over at Tony and couldn't help but smiled at the look on his face. See, told you it was impossible to stay mad at him. "You're fired."

"That's not up to you." Natalie said. Oooh, sassy. She sat down next to Tony.

"Tony, Amber, I want you to meet Agent Romanoff." Nick said.

"Hi." Tony said.

"I'm a S.H.I.E.L.D shadow. Once we knew you two were ill, I was tasked to you by Director Fury."

"I suggest you apologize."

"You've been very busy." Nick said. "You made your girl your CEO, you're giving away all your stuff. You let your young assistant here kick your ass in you own suit."

"She attacked me first."

"What?!" I exclaimed. "You attacked me first." Did I just answer one of my questions. Two of my questions actually. No, I did not attack legendary Tony Stark. Yes, legendary Tony Stark attacked me.

"Little sister walked in there and kicked your ass." Nick said. "Is that possible?"

"According, to Mr. Stark's database security guidelines, there are redundancies to prevent unauthorized usage." Natalie said. Tony scuffed.

"What do you want from us?" I asked.

"What do we want?" Nick questioned me. "Nuh-uh-uh." Natalie got up and left. "What do you want from me? You two have a problem, a problem I have to deal with. Contrary to you belief, you two are not the center of my universe."

"I get it." Tony muttered.

"I have bigger problems than you two in the southwest region to deal with! Hit him." Natalie walked up to Tony and stuck a needle into his neck. Tony jumped in shock.

"Ah! Oh, god!" Tony cried. "Are you gonna steal my kidney and sell it?" I looked at his neck and saw the marks going away. Unbelievable. "Can you please not doing anything awful for five seconds?"

"What did she just do to him?" I asked Nick.

"What did we just do for him?" Nick restated my question.

"I got one for you, Amber." Natalie said holding out a shot. I pushed it away.

"Uh, no thank you." I said. "I'd like to see what happens to him before I try it."

"It's lithium dioxide." Nick explained. "It's gonna take the edge off. We're trying to get you two back to work."

"Give me a couple boxes and I'll be right as rain." Tony said.

"It's not a cure." Natalie said. "Just abates the symptoms."

"Doesn't look like it's gonna be an easy fix." Nick said.

"Trust me, I know. I'm good at this stuff." Tony said. "Hell, Amber's better at it than I am. She's been looking non stop for a suitable replacement for palladium. She's tried every combination, every permutation, of every known element."

"Well, I'm here to tell you that you two haven't tried it all." Nick said.


	8. Chapter 8

I sat on the balcony rail as Nick and Tony sat in chairs in front of me. I looked behind them into the destroy burnt room caused by when Tony and I had our little showdown the other night.

"The thing in your chests are based on unfinished business." Nick said.

"No, it was finished." Tony said. "It never been particularly effective until I miniaturized it and put it in my. . ."

"No, Howard said the arc reactor was a stepping stone to something greater." Nick said. "He was about to kick off an energy race that was gonna dwarf the arms race. He was onto something big. Something so big that it was gonna make the nuclear reactor look like a triple A battery."

"Just him?" I questioned him. "Or was Anton Vanko in on it too?"

"Anton Vanko was the other side of that coin." Nick answered me. "Anton saw it as a way to get rich. When Howard found out, he had him deported. When the Russians found out that he couldn't deliver, they shipped his ass off to Siberia and he spent the next 20 years in a vodka-fueled rage. Not quite the environment you wanna raise a kid in. The son you had the misfortune of crossing paths with in Monaco."

"You told us that Amber hasn't tried everything. What hasn't she tried?" Tony asked.

"Your father, Amber." Nick said.

"What about my father?" I asked.

"Do you know why he went to Afghanistan in the first place?"

"No, family trip, I don't know."

"What did he do for a living?"

"He was a lawyer."

"Lawyer my ass. Did he travel a lot?"

"Yes."

"Did you know why?"

"No."

"He traveled a lot because he was always meeting up with Tony's father." I gaped at him, mouth opened and eyes wide.

"My father knew Howard Stark?"

"Yes, Howard came up with the idea of the reactor but he needed your father's resources. After Howard died, your father continued on the reactor idea and he went to Afghanistan to present a new idea to Obadiah. You remember him?"

"Yeah, what was the new idea?"

"Your father never had the chance to present it. Obadiah killed him so he could take the idea back over seas to Stark Industries and take credit."

"That's when it happened." I muttered, piecing it together and remembering that dreadful day.

"What happened?" Tony asked me.

"My father had left me, my mother and Annemarie at home one day. Told us that he would be back in a couple hours. Night fell and he never returned. My mother became worried when soldiers barged into our house and shot my mother on that very spot. Annemarie and I were then separated and that's when I got thrown into that place."

"Amber, your knowledge towards chemistry was all your father talked about. Tony, your knowledge towards physics was all your father talked about. Howard said you were the only person with the means and knowledge to finish what he started. Amber's father disagreed and said that if and when the time came, she could add on to that idea."

"He said that?" Tony and I questioned him at the same time.

"Mmm-hmm." Nick said. "Are you those people? Hmm? Are you? Cause if you two are, then you can solve the riddle of your hearts." Tony shook his head.

"I don't know where you're getting your information but he wasn't my biggest fan." Tony said.

"What do you remember about your dad, huh?" Nick asked him.

"He was cold, calculating. He never told me he loved me or even that he liked me. So it's a little tough to digest when you're telling me when he said the future was riding on me and he's passing it down to me. I don't get that. We're talking about a guy whose happiest day was when he shipped me off to boarding school."

"That's not true."

"Then clearly you know my dad better than I did." Two guys came up and set down a large gray case in front of Tony.

"As a matter of fact, I did. He was one of the founding members of S.H.I.E.L.D." Nick said as he checked his watch before getting to his feet.

"What?" Tony questioned him surprised as he too got to his feet.

"I got a 2:00."

"Wait, wait, wait. What's this?" I asked pointing to the case.

"You two good, right?"

"No, I'm not." Tony said.

"Neither am I." I agreed, jumping from the rail and onto my feet.

"You got this, right?" Nick asked.

"Got what?" Tony asked. "I don't know what I'm suppose to get."

"Natasha will remain a floater at Stark with her cover intact." Nick said. "And you remember Agent Coulson, right?"

"Yeah," Tony and I answered quietly. Nick began to walk away from us but stopped and turned back to us.

"Oh, and Tony, Amber, I got my eye on you." He left then.

"We disabled all communications. No contact with the outside world. Good luck." Natasha said before disappearing too. Tony turned to the agent.

"Please, first I'm gonna need a little body work." Tony said. "I'll put a little time into the lab. If you could send one of your goon squad down to the Coffee Bean for a Starbucks run or something, that'd be nice."

"I'm not here for that." Coulson said. "I've been authorized by Director Fury to use any means to keep you on premises. If you attempt to leave or play any games, I will tase you and watch Super Nanny while you drool into the carpet. Ok?"

"I think I got, yeah."

"Enjoy your evening's entertainment." Coulson disappeared too. Tony turned and looked at me.

"Ooooh, he told you." I said.


	9. Chapter 9

I sat across from Tony and looked through notes from my father as Tony looked through his father's note. A video played to the left of me. It was Tony's father explaining something that I really didn't care about. My father came in at some points but I didn't pay attention. Until his voice called my name.

"Amber," I looked up at the screen to see my father. "You've always been a smart girl. Right from the moment you were born. Never went outside to play with the other kids. Never let anyone push you around. You always stayed in your room and read and read and read. Chemistry was what you loved. I don't know if you remember our not but when you were about five years old, I had this iron bar under my room. Don't ask me why is was there it was just there. But I tried everything to get it down. Then one day I came home and saw you pouring something onto the bar and next thing I knew, the bar fell apart. You were such a smart girl. I hope you find someone who will share your knowledge with you." I wiped the tears furiously out of my eyes as my father stepped off the screen and Howard Stark came on.

"Tony," Tony looked up from his notes at the screen. "You are too young to understand this right now, so I though I'd put it on film for you. I built this for you." Howard pointed to a table behind him. It had structures of buildings on it. "And someday you'll realize it represents a whole lot more than just people's inventions. It represents my life's work. This is the key to the future. I'm limited to technology in my time. But one day, you'll figure this out. And when you do. . . you will change the world. What is and always will be my greatest creation. . . is you. I hope you find someone who will share you knowledge with you." The screen went blank.

"Where's that table?" Tony asked me.

"I believe it's still in your old office." I answered.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

My hair blew behind my shoulders as I drove over the speed limit down the interstate, Tony in the passenger seat. I pulled off the road to a strawberry stand.

"Hello, Ma'am." The Spanish guy greeted me. I looked over at Tony.

"You do know that Pepper's allergic to strawberries right?" I asked.

"No, she's not. Ask how much they are." Tony said. I rolled my eyes and asked the question in Spanish.

"Seis dollars. Six." The guy answered. I turned to Tony.

"I don't have any dough. Here." Tony handed the guy his gold watch.

"No, Sir. That's too much."

"It's fine. Take it."

"That's. . . no, Seήor."

"Take it." The guy took the watch and handed the box of strawberries to Tony.

"He doesn't like people handing him things so I'll take that." I leaned over Tony and took the strawberries from the guy.

"Are you Iron Man?" The guy asked.

"Sometimes." Tony answered as I pulled onto the road and drove to Stark Industries.

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRR

I opened the door to Pepper's office, nice and slowly. The office secretary was behind us trying to stop us.

"I'll just be a second." Tony said.

"Sorry," I mouthed to Pepper. Pepper waved the secretary off and she left and closed the door behind her. Pepper was on the phone while the man on the news talked.

"When Mr. Stark announced he was indeed Iron Man, he made a promise. . ." The news guy said.

"No, the suits belongs to us." Pepper said.

". . . he would look out for us. He obviously did not. Now, for Iron Boy. We still don't know who he is but he has also not been there for us. And now we learn that his secretary, a woman named Virginia Pepper Potts has been appointed CEO of Stark Industries. What are her qualifications?"

"No."

"Miss Potts is doing nothing. . ."

"Mute." I said and the TV went silent. I pointed to a pile of Tony's stuff in the far corner and Tony walked over to it.

"No." Pepper protested to the other person on the phone. "Bert, Bert, listen to me. Don't tell me that we have the best patent lawyers in the country and then not let pursue this."

"I'll get this stuff out of here." Tony said. I sat down in a chair in front of Pepper's desk.

"Tell the president to sign an order." Pepper said. "We'll talk about it at the expo. Hammer's giving some presentation tomorrow evening. Will Tony Stark and Amber Pricing be there?" Pepper looked at us.

"Will we?" Tony and I asked in unison as Tony sat in a chair next to me.

"No, they will not be there." Pepper said. "Bye." She hung up.

"Touchy." I muttered.

"I'd like to be there." Tony said. "Got a minute?"

"No." Pepper said coolly.

"You just got off the phone. Thirty seconds." Tony asked.

"Twenty nine, twenty eight. . . " Pepper began to count down.

"Ok, I, um. . . "Tony began. "I driving over here. Or Amber was driving over here. But anyways, I thought I was coming over here to apologize but I'm not."

"You didn't come here to apologize?"

"That goes without saying. I'm still working on that. But I haven't been entirely up front with you and I want to try to make good. Do you know how short life is? And if I never got to express. . . and by the way, this is somewhat revelatory to me. I don't care. . . I mean, I care. It would be nice. I'm not expecting you to. . . Here's what I'm trying to say. I'll just say it."

"Let me just stop you right here. If you say I one more time, I'm gonna hurl something at your head I think. I am trying to run a company. Do you know what the entails?"

"Yes."

"People are relying on you to be Iron Man and Iron Boy to be there too and you disappeared and all I'm doing is putting out your fires and taking heat for it. I am trying to do the job that you were meant to do. Did you bring me strawberries?" I pointed my finger at Tony. "Did you know that there is one thing on earth that I'm allergic?"

"Strawberries." I said.

"There is progress. I knew there was a correlation between you and this." Tony said.

"I need you. . ." Pepper said.

"I need you, too."

". . . to leave. . . now." The office door opened and Natalie walked in with Happy behind her. Unbelievable.

"Miss Potts?" Natalie walked over to Pepper's desk.

"Hi, come on in."

"Wheels up in twenty five minutes."

"Thank you."

"Anything else, Boss?" Happy asked.

"I'm good, Hap." Tony said.

"I'll be just. . . another minute." Pepper said.

"I lost both the kids in the divorce." Tony laughed. "That's. . . No." Natalie and Happy both shook their heads. Even I shook my head.

"Are you blending in well here, Natalie?" I asked. "Here at Stark. . . Enterprises. You're name is Natalie, isn't it?" She didn't answer me.

"I thought you two didn't get along?" Tony asked Pepper and Natalie.

"No, that's so." Pepper answered.

"It's just me you don't care for." Tony said. "No, nothing."

"Actually, while you're here, maybe you and Natalie can discuss the matter of personal belongings."

"Absolutely." Natalie said. Pepper and Happy both left the office. "I'm surprised you could keep your mouth shut."

"Boy you're good." I said. "You're mind blowing duplicitous. You're a triple imposter. I've never seen anything like it before. Is there anything real about?"

"Do you even speak Latin?" Tony asked.

"Vos can vel expellam te domum aut ego te habiturum colliguntur." Natalie spoke Latin.

"Which means? Wait, what? What did you just say?" Natalie walked out of the office.

"She said you could either drive yourself home or she could have you collected." I said. "I think we should head back to the lab and check out that table."

"Good idea, let's go."


	10. Chapter 10

After hours of mind-splitting thinking, we saw a nucleus on the table. Well, me being the chemistry nerd, _I _saw the nucleus. I sat back and watched as Tony only broke his back building a machine that provided the power to give us the energy of the combination of elements. While he was doing that, I built two whole new reactors and placed a triangle in each of them. Tony placed a prism in the machine and gave me a thumbs up. I got up and put the reactors in the view of the prism and I went behind the machine.

"Initializing prismatic accelerator." Jarvis said as the machine whirred to a start. The machine whirred faster and faster. "Approaching maximum power." A blue laser came out of the machine and cut a slit in the wall. Tony turned the wheel to move the laser and ended up sending the laser through my new gun for my suit.

"Whoops." Tony said.

"Tony!" I cried. "Do you know how long that took me to make?"

"I said, whoops."

"Whoops, is not going to rebuild me gun, Tony." Tony eventually got the laser to the reactors and the triangles in the reactors glowed. Tony turned the machine off and the triangles still glowed.

"That was easy." We walked over to the triangles.

"Congratulations, Sir, Ma'am." Jarvis said. "You have created a new element." I wired some wires together in the reactors and the reactors locked their walls around the triangle and glowed bright blue. "Sir, Ma'am, the reactor has accepted the modified core. I will begin running diagnostics."


	11. Chapter 11

"Dummy. You. Clean up this mess." Tony ordered. "You're killing me."

"Incoming call with a blocked number, Sir." Jarvis said. I looked at the screen. Unknown number. Interesting.

"My phone privileges are reinstated." Tony muttered as he sat down in from of the computer. "Lovely. Coulson, how's the Land of Enchantment?"

"Hey, Tony, how you doing?" Ivan's voice sounded through the speakers. He laughed. Tony and I exchanged worry glances. "I double cycle."

"What?" I asked.

"You told me double cycles, more power. Good advice."

"You sound pretty sprightly for a dead guy." Tony said.

"You, too." Ivan laughed. Tony muted the phone.

"Trace him."

"Sir." Jarvis acknowledged him.

"Now, the true history of Stark name will be written."

"Jarvis, where is he?" I asked.

"Accessing the oracle grid." Jarvis said. "Eastern seaboard."

"What your father did to my family over forty years," Ivan continued. "I will do to you in forty minutes."

"Sounds good. Let's get together and hash it out." Tony said.

"Tri-state area." Jarvis updated. "Manhattan and outlying boroughs."

"I hope you're ready." Ivan said and hung up.

"Call trace incomplete."

"Tony," I said.

"Yeah, Amber?"

"Isn't Hammer Industries in Tri-State area?" He didn't answer me. He was looking at the arc reactors.

"Amber, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Unfortunately, I am, Sir, and I have to say it's a terrible idea."

"Well, you know the saying, sometimes terrible ideas turn out to be wonderful ideas."

"I've never heard that saying."

"That's because I just made it up. Come on let's go."

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII II

I followed Tony into the Stark Expo and landed on the stage beside him. In front of us was James in the suit and Justin to the right. The crowd behind us cheered and applauded.

"Boy, what the hell did you do to that suit?" I asked looking at the big ass gun on his back.

"Never mind that, Amber, we've got trouble." Tony said walking up to James.

"Tony, there are civilians here present. I'm here on orders." James said. "Let's not do this right now."

"Give them a wave. These people are in danger." I said, turning to wave at the crowd. "You got to get them out of here. Trust us for the next five minutes."

"Amber, you tried trusting him and you got tossed around his house." James said.

"Well," I paused, trying to think of something but couldn't.

"I think he's working with Vanko." Tony said.

"Vanko's alive?" James questioned us. Tony walked over to Justin.

"Where is he?"

"What?" Justin asked.

"Where's Vanko?" I asked sternly, walking up to Justin's side.

"Who?"

"Tell us." Tony growled.

"What are you doing here man?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" James said behind us. The gun on James's back pulled up over his shoulder and pointed straight at us.

"Is that you?" I asked.

"I'm not doing that. That's not me. I can't move. I'm locked up! I'm locked up! Get out of here! Go! The whole system's compromised!"

"Let's take it outside!" Tony said, jumping into the air and shooting out of the expo with me behind him. Thousands of bullets from the drones on the stage followed us. "Jarvis, break in. I need to own him."

"Yes, Sir." Jarvis said.

"Amber, I'm locked on. I have target lock." James said.

"On what?" I asked.

"On you!" I swiveled left and right, trying to stay clear of James's bullets. "Tony, on your six!" Bullets flew at Tony.

"We have to split up!" Tony said.

"Then I'll have Rhodey and the drones!" I protested.

"Hopefully the drones will follow me and you'll just have Rhodey to worry about."

"And what if they don't follow you?" Tony didn't wait for an answer. He left my side and the drones followed him. "You crazy lunatic!" Bullets bounced off my suit and I rounded a pillar, hoping to lose James but he stayed close on my tail. "How we doing, Jarvis?"

"Remote reboot unsuccessful" Jarvis said. A map of the location where Tony was popped up in front of me. He was heading back to the expo.

"Tony, what the hell do you think you're doing? You're heading straight for the rest of the drones!"

"Oh, relax, Amber." Tony said. I flicked the map away when Tony joined back at my side.

"You got multiples coming in on you." James said.

"Let's take this away from the expo." I flew under the highway, snaking in and out of the pillars.

"Listen, listen. A pack just peeled off, headed back to the expo."

"Got it."

"I'm closing on you! Ordinance coming in hot, Amber! Watch it!" I shot sharply out from the under the bridge, dodging James's missile at the last second. I flew over towards the NYC globe with Tony still by my side and James and the drones still behind us.

"You still locked on?"

"Yeah!" Tony grabbed my right arm.

"Drop your socks and grab your crocs. We're about to get wet on this ride." Tony led me towards the globe at high speed.

"Wait, wait, wait!" I protested.

"Kick off when I tell you to." Tony said. We flew inside the globe and straight towards the other side. "Kick off!" I kicked off the side and Tony led me out through the top. Explosions happened behind us and the drones crashed into the globe. Tony let go of my arm and I did a couple corkscrews to get my mind straight. "Sorry, guys. Had to thin out the herd. What's your twenty, Rhodey?" Out of nowhere, something hit me in the back and sent me flying to the ground, and I landed in a small creek. I stood up and James grabbed me and flipped me onto my back. His guns fired bullets at me and I grabbed it to steer it away from me.

"Tony, I could use a little help here!" Tony came out of the sky and threw himself at James, knocking him off of me. I scrambled to my feet and stared at James limp suit.

"Reboot complete." Natalie's voice sounded through my mask. "You got your best friend back."

"Thank you very much, Agent Romanoff." Tony said.

"Well, done with the new chest piece, I'm reading higher output and your vitals are looking promising."

"Yes, for the moment we're not dying. Thank you."

"What do you mean?" Pepper's voice sounded. "Did you say you two were dying?"

"That you? Um, no, we're not. Not anymore."

"What's going on?"

I was going to tell you."

"You were going to me you guys were dying?"

"You didn't let me."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was gonna make you an omelet and tell you!"

"Hey, hey, save it for the honeymoon." Natalie said. "You got incoming. The fight's coming to you."

"Great. Pepper?"

"Are you two ok now?" Pepper asked.

"We are fine. Don't be mad."

"I am mad."

"I will formerly apologize when I'm not fending off a Hammeroid attack!"

"Fine."

"We could have been in Venice."

"Oh, please." Pepper and I said in unison. We walked over to James. We flipped up our masks and I tapped my foot onto James's mask.

"Snap out of it, buddy. We need you. They're coming. Let's go, Get up." James's mask flipped up.

"Oh, man, you can have your suit back." James's said. Tony smiled and helped James to his feet.

"You ok?" I asked.

"Yeah, thanks." I shuffled my feet in the water.

"Tony, look, I'm sorry, ok?" I said.

"Don't be." Tony said.

"No, I should have trusted you."

"I put you in this position. Forget it."

"No, it's you fault. I just wanted to say I'm sorry."

"Thank you. That's all I wanted to hear. Partners. They're coming in hot. Any second. What's the play?"

"We wanna take the high ground." James said. "Let's put the biggest gun up on that ridge."

"Gotcha." Tony and I said. All three of began walking towards the spot.

"Where do you wanna be?" Tony asked.

"Where are you going?" James asked.

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "Rhodey, you have a big gun but you're not _the _big gun."

"Amber, don't be jealous."

"The bells and the whistles." Tony said.

"It's called being a badass." Rhodey said.

"Fine." I muttered.

"All right, you go up top, Amber will draw them in and I'll stay down here." Tony said.

"Don't stay down here." James said. "This is the worst place to be."

"Ok, you got a spot."

"It's the kill box, Tony. This is where you go to die." A drone landed behind James and two more behind me and Tony then they just started falling all around us.

"Oh, shit." I muttered. We snapped our masks shut and began firing. I shot plasma jet after plasma jet to keep the drones on my side at bay. I grabbed a drone and threw it at another, causing an explosion. I dodged a missile and Tony fire his missiles at three drones.

"See that?" Tony asked as I punched a drone to the side before shooting a plasma ball at another.

"Yeah, nice." James and I said. It seemed like these drones would never end. Never stop coming. I kicked one into another before firing a ball at them.

"Rhodey? Amber? Get down!" I crouched low to the ground and Tony spun around in a circle, killing every drone with a laser.

"Wow, I think you should lead with that next time." I said.

"Yeah, sorry, boss. I can only use it once. It's a one off."

"Heads up, you got one more drone incoming." Natalie said. "This one looks different. Repulsor signature's significantly higher." A big drone landed in from of us. Actually it wasn't a drone. It was a suit. And inside that suit, was Ivan.

"Good to be back." Ivan said.

"This ain't gonna be good." Rhodey said. Electric whips shot out of Ivan's hands. "I got something special for this guy. I'm gonna bust his bunker with the ex-wife."

"With the what?" Tony and I questioned him. A missile shot from James's shoulder and bounced off Ivan's chest.

"Hammer tech?" I asked.

"Yeah." James answered sadly.

"I got this." Tony said. Bullets shot from Tony's shoulder but they just bounced off of Ivan as he closed his mask. Ivan whipped the whips at us and we danced away. Tony shot at him and Ivan whipped him. James tried flying behind Ivan but Ivan wrapped his whip around his stomach and slammed him back down. I ran in a circle around Ivan, shooting plasma after plasma. Tony shot towards Ivan and Ivan sent him flying into a tree. Ivan wrapped his whip around James's neck, pulled him forward and punched him in the face, knocking him back. I jumped into the air and came back down, punching Ivan in the face. He slammed his head into my mask and wrapped his whip around my neck and another whip shot from his chest and grabbed Tony's neck. Electricity wept through the suit and started to malfunction. "Rhodes! Amber! I got an idea. Wanna be a hero?"

"What?" James and I asked.

"I could really use some sidekicks! Put your hands up!"

"This is your idea?" I asked.

"Yep." I put my hand up and charged the plasma in it along with Tony and James.

"I'm ready! Go, go, go!"

"Finish him!" I shot a jet out of my hand and Tony's and James's met mine in the middle, causing an explosion and sending us flying back.


	12. Chapter 12

"All these drones are rigged to blow." James said somewhere in the darkness. I tried to open my eyes but I couldn't. They were heavy and my body ached.

"Amber," Tony called to me somewhere above me. I wanted to reassure him that I was all right but I didn't know if that was the truth. Am I ok? Is something broken? Am I slowly dying? "Rhodey, go get Pepper from the expo. Take her somewhere safe." I felt force under my back and under my legs as I was lifted into the air. "I got you, Amber." The multiple explosions below us made me wake up into reality. I fell from Tony's arms but immediately gained control over my suit and flew above Tony. I watched the firework below as I landed on a rooftop, shock overwhelming. What the hell just happened? I tore off my helmet and threw it down, gripping my head. Tony tore off his helmet too.

"I can't take this anymore." I said.

"You can't?"

"I can't take this."

"Look at me."

"My body literally cannot handle the stress. Most of the time I feel like a lost puppy following you around."

"I think we did ok."

"I-I-I-I quit. I'm calling child services and having them pick me up tomorrow. That's it."

"What did you just say? You're done?" Tony walked over to me and stood about two feet in front of me. "That's surprising. No, it's not surprising. I get it. You don't have to make any excuses."

"I wasn't making any excuses."

"Well, you actually were making an excuse."

"No, I wasn't making an excuse. I'm actually very—"

"Hey, hey, hey. You deserve better. Maybe you'll find a family who will love you and will let you use your knowledge."

"Well,"

"You've taken such good care of me. I've been in a tough spot and you got me though it. So, right?"

"Thank you."

"Yeah."

"Thank you for understanding."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's, uh, let's talk clean up."

"I'll have Pepper handle the transitions."

"Ok, what about the press? Because you've been with me for like a year now."

"But with you it's like dog years."

"I know."

"I mean, it's like—" He cut me off by leaning forward and pressing his lips to mine. I was caught off guard by how lustful his lips were but I loved it. I leaned into it and began to kiss back until he pulled away.

"Weird."

"No it's not weird."

"It's not weird."

"No."

"Let's try it again." He kissed me again until James's voice sounded to my left.

"I thought it was weird." James said. We pulled apart and looked at James who was still in his suit and was sitting on the other side of the roof. "You guys look like two seals fighting over a grape."

"I had just quit." I stuttered.

"You don't have to do that. I-I heard the whole thing."

"You should get lost." Tony said.

"I was here first. Get a roof." Tony laughed at that.

"I thought you were out of one liners."

"That was the last one."

"You kicked ass back there by the way."

"Thank you, you too. Listen my car got taken out in the explosions. So, I'm going to have to hang onto your suit for a minute. Ok?"

"Not ok. Not ok with that." James stood up and slapped his helmet down over his face.

"It wasn't a question." James disappeared into the night.

"How are you going to quit?" Tony questioned me.

"Did I say that I was going to quit?"

"I believe you did. You also said that you were going to call child services."

"I must have still been in shock when I said that."

"So you're not quitting?"

"Why would I?"

"And you're not calling child services?"

"Too much paperwork to go through."

"That's good."

"Yeah, I suppose it is." I smiled at him and he smiled back.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

That's the end of my second story. The third story should be up by the end of the day or by tomorrow.


End file.
